text:
FORT COLLINS, Colo., Jan. 31, 2012 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — 2012 has started off on the correct foot for the Loveland Branch of Financial Foundation Group, also known as FFG. The company spends the typical work week helping people review their retirement accounts, college savings, investment safety, and life insurance needs. This past week the staff not only focused on the usual, but also spread its wings into the community once again for another volunteer project.
The Financial Foundation Group's Loveland staff met up at the Larimer Humane Society in jeans, paint shirts, and sneakers to spruce up what the Humane Society affectionately calls the MYM room or the Meet Your Match room. This is where animals are taken to spend some time with prospective owners to see if they are a good match for each other.
The Larimer Humane Society was founded in 1969 and is an independent, non-profit organization. Because it is Northern Colorado's only open-door animal care facility, it provides shelter and medical treatment to almost 12,000 lost, injured, ill, abused, abandoned, and orphaned wild and domestic animals on a yearly basis.
Because of their quality adoptions and lost and found services, the Larimer Humane Society places more than 3,500 companion animals into new homes per year and reconnects just over 2,100 stray animals with their thankful owners.
"I am reminded at every volunteer project just how much heart and passion each of our staff members have when it comes to just simply helping out. They spent time mopping up dust and dirt, painting, organizing, and pretty much whatever was needed…just to help," says Aryn Goldman, Partner and Executive Director at FFG.
The Financial Foundation Group's mission is to become a nationwide leader in the financial services industry one town at a time. They have experienced a phenomenal growth rate over the past few years and plan to continue the trend. The knowledgeable staff at FFG has access to a wide array of investment products and can provide assistance with providing life insurance choices and wealth building strategies to suit each individual client's needs.
Currently, the Loveland office is offering employment opportunities to motivated individuals looking to advance rapidly through their management trainee program to help further expand the company.
The company's web site – www.FinancialFoundationGroup.com – has current market information and summaries for clients to review.
News Source: Financial Foundation Group :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .


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Climate change legislation before Congress could be an economic godsend to farmers and ranchers. Or it could be an enormous financial burden.
It depends on whom you ask, and not even farmers and ranchers agree on the matter.
Those who are against the bill say it would lead to skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer costs, cutting into farmers' and ranchers' already unpredictable profits. Those who support it contend any losses would be more than made up for through a provision that would allow companies to meet their pollution targets by investing in offset projects, such as farms that capture methane or plant trees.
The legislation would cap emissions from major industrial sources, including power plants, factories, refineries and electricity and natural gas distributors. Emissions from agriculture would be excluded.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report concluded that if the proposal passed, farmers and others in agriculture could see an initial 1% to 7.2% loss in income due to increased costs in energy and, therefore, fertilizer — which requires a great deal of energy to be produced. Those losses would be far outweighed by the tens of billions of dollars farmers are expected to rake in for projects to reduce greenhouse gases in years to come, the report says.
But Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said the report is incomplete and believes the USDA rushed the study to address senators' concerns after the House passed its bill in June. The Senate is expected to vote this fall.
"We still have a question about how is this going to impact livestock, corn, soybeans and wheat in our state," says Johanns, who was agriculture secretary from 2005-07 under President George W. Bush. "This makes no sense to me whatsoever. Why would the leadership of the House ... put a bill out when they hadn't had analysis on the ag sector? That not only impacts farmers and ranchers, it impacts consumers."
However, the National Farmers Union backs the legislation, provided the USDA administer the agriculture offset program and that those already practicing carbon-reducing techniques be rewarded for their efforts.
"These guys that are screaming that it's going to drive costs through the roof ... all of the credible economic research that's been done really disproves that," says National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson.
He also says that energy costs could soar even without the legislation and notes that global warming could wreak havoc on the food supply.
"All of the climate change research says we're going to see more flooding, we're going to see more droughts, we're going to see higher temperatures, we're going to see more pests, we're going to see more diseases," he says. "All of these things are going to require significant adaptation cost increases for agriculture."
Other farm groups share Johanns' view on the legislation, as do a number of farm-state lawmakers in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota. Leaders in Southern energy-producing states, such as Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, also have voiced concern that their coal and natural gas industries will be hurt.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has denounced the legislation as an energy tax in disguise, saying energy costs alone could spike well beyond the 20% estimated by the federal government.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., says the USDA report grossly underestimated the increases in natural gas and fertilizer costs likely to be sparked by the climate legislation.
"This bill puts a chokehold on the local economy," Roberts says. "Bottom line ... this bill is a wet dog that is not welcome in any farm or ranch house."
Don't tell that to Conde, S.D., cattle producer and grain farmer Doug Sombke, who has been employing environmentally friendly techniques like no-till for more than a decade on his 2,500-acre operation.
"People are so afraid of this energy cost thing; that just amazes me," Sombke says. "In the last 2 years, we've still seen energy costs go up, and not just the 15% or 20% like they're predicting. We've seen it go up 200%.
"We survived that; we'll survive this small increase."
On the other side of the debate is Sallie Adkins, who owns a 15,000-acre ranch with her husband near Halsey in the Nebraska Sandhills.
"I just think the major concern in agriculture today is how we can keep our cost of production affordable to stay in business and still be competitive with other markets," she says.

subset: commoncrawl


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NEWS - Thursday, July 25, 2013
Indies weigh in on Microsoft's new self-publishing stance
Microsoft will now allow indie game developers to self-publish their titles on Xbox One, a reversal of their previous policy. To find out how the indie world is reacting, we reached out to several developers.
Andy Schatz, creator of Monaco: Whats Yours Is Mine, has had a number of difficulties with Microsofts platform, one that caused a lengthy delay for the Xbox 360 version. According to Schatz, an open console can only lead to good things for Microsoft, developers, and consumers.
"Closed platforms require that a gatekeeper vet every project long before the project is done, which means that its much harder to come by surprise hits, and everyone is subject to the tastes of the platforms gatekeeper," Schatz explained. "It also requires that developers focus on the pitch in order to get a slot, which can be a time-sink with no discernible benefit for the completed game. While I enjoyed working with [publisher Majesco], had self-publishing been an option on the Xbox 360 it would have saved me a lot of trouble in the long run, since my destination platform was in limbo until a year before launch."
However, Schatz has also been burned by disappointing sales for the Xbox Live Arcade version of Monaco, leading him to issue this warning to developers enthused by todays news. "If Microsoft doesnt promote your game, it will still be a gigantic uphill battle to see any sort of meaningful sales."
A number of developers have experiences similar to Schatzs, but the idea of an open platform has some of his contemporaries applauding. Dant Rambo of Gaijin Games (the BIT.TRIP series) and Corey Rollins of Klei Entertainment (Mark of the Ninja, Dont Starve) have previously worked with Microsoft and both indicate that a lower barrier of entry will make future working relationships easier.
Microsofts move may also draw eyes from newer indie devs, like TowerFall creator Matt Thorson. "If this is true it makes a huge difference," he said. "For me, lack of self-publishing makes it very difficult to consider launching on a platform. Ive never worked with Microsoft, but Ive heard horror stories from other indies. Fingers crossed theyre aware of the problems and are ready to put in the work to catch up to Sony. They seem to be on the right track with this and the recent removal of the XBLA patch fee."
Not all indies are completely enthralled by Microsofts efforts. Jennifer Schneidereit of Nyamyam Games (Tengami), a former Microsoft employee herself, isnt entirely ready to forget the publishers previous antipathy towards the indie community. "Up until now Microsoft have displayed a mentality that excludes independent developers," she said. "This makes it difficult for me to trust their motives for reversing their stance now. From my time at Microsoft, I know that company goals and direction change frequently. These new plans might just be a last minute band-aid and well end up with a similar situation to Xbox Live Indie Games, where Microsoft provides a system, but doesnt give it the support it needs to be successful."
While Schneidereit is supportive of Microsofts latest move, she points out that they have some catching up to do. "Nintendo and Sony are already doing a fantastic job at building relationships with independent developers and showing us how we fit into their strategies long-term," she added. "Microsoft will have to do a lot more to gain my trust than just changing their self-publishing policy."
Other indie devs are currently weighing in on Twitter, and the reaction is mixed. Some are optimistic, like Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell, who is "looking forward" to finding out more. However, some bridges may have been permanently burned. Fezs Phil Fish, who previously stated that Fez 2 would not be coming to Xbox One, simply tweeted, "good for them!"
Source: http://www.shacknews.com


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Next: ax_boost_atomic, Previous: ax_blas_f77_func, Up: The Macros
Test for Asio library from the Boost C++ libraries. The macro requires a preceding call to AX_BOOST_BASE. Further documentation is available at <http://randspringer.de/boost/index.html>.
This macro calls:
And sets:
Download the latest version of ax_boost_asio.m4 or browse the macro's revision history.
Copyright © 2008 Thomas Porschberg firstname.lastname@example.com
Copyright © 2008 Pete Greenwell firstname.lastname@example.com
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty.


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Five months ago, Vizio impressed us with a line of slick new laptops–the first PCs by the company known best for its televisions. Now, Vizio is taking pre-orders on its "Thin + Light" Ultrabook PCs, which will ship by the end of the summer.
There's already no shortage of Windows PCs that liberally borrow design cues from Apple, with PC makers' Ultrabooks inviting more comparisons than ever. But Vizio seems to have nailed the concept.
Just like the MacBook Air, Vizio's laptops are built from a single slab of aluminum. Even with the premium materials, the laptops are fairly thin and light, at 0.67 inches thick and 3.39 pounds for the 14-inch model, and 0.68 inches thick and 3.96 pounds for the 15-inch version. Vizio didn't skimp on the screen either, using a 1600-by-900 panel for the 14-inch laptop and a 1920-by-1080 Full HD display for the 15-inch laptop. The larger of the two isn't exactly a "Retina" display, but it comes close.
As for tech specs, Vizio offers configurations that rival the MacBook Air. Although Apple doesn't offer a 14-inch Air, Vizio's 14-inch model is only about a quarter-inch wider, and less than a half-inch deeper. Both machines offer Core i5 and Core i7 processors, though Vizio also offers a Core i3 model. They both come with 4 GB of RAM and128 GB of solid state storage. (Apple's Airs can be upgraded to 8 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of solid state.)
Vizio and Apple both claim up to 7 hours of battery life. Vizio's 14-inch screen comes at a higher resolution than the Air, which uses a 1440-pixel-by-900-pixel resolution for the screen. They both offer USB 3.0, and Vizio uses HDMI output instead of Thunderbolt.
(Thunderbolt, much like USB 3.0, is a high-speed interconnect that facilitates data transfer between PCs and peripherals like external storage devices and monitors. However, Thunderbolt is faster than USB 3.0, with data-transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps (gigabits per second). The technology is also attractive as it can daisy-chain up to five peripherals.)
But the real kicker for Vizio's laptops is the price. While other Ultrabook makers have priced their premium laptops well above $1,000, Vizio's 14-inch Thin + Light PC starts at $900. The $950 Core i5 model is $250 cheaper than the comparable 13-inch MacBook Air described above. The 15-inch version starts at $950 with a Core i3 processor.
It's not all good news, though. Both The Verge and Gizmodo were disappointed with Vizio's trackpads, and The Verge wasn't too keen on the keyboard. (I haven't tried Vizio's laptops since CES, but I thought they worked well back then.) The keyboard and trackpad are hallmarks of the MacBook experience, and can't be measured in specs, so it's disappointing to hear that Vizio may have skimped.
Still, Vizio's combination of low prices, high-end materials, and solid specs will likely make a big splash in the Windows PC market, just as the company disrupted the television market with aggressive pricing. Low-cost PCs are nothing new, but Windows fans may finally have a low-cost MacBook rival to look forward to.


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Kanye West – Runaway (movie)
Posted in Art, Artists, Movies, Music Videos on October 23rd, 2010 by HyphenI could write an essay on Kanye's Runaway film, and the ensuing debates it sparked, but what's the point? There will be a million analytical pieces by Monday, and none of them will be any more "right" than the others. It's art…and I'm really not looking forward to hearing other people tell me how to consume it.
Personally, I'm satisfied with an interesting concept, some beautiful shots & colors, and some really dope music. The intro scene with "Dark Fantasy" and the "Devil In A New Dress" segment were flawless, though part of me wishes this was the first time I ever heard any of these songs. That's always been one of my least favorite aspects of the internet age and I may have to revert back to avoiding music from my favorite artists until it's officially presented. Even with all the live performances, interviews, and song/artwork leaks spoiling much of Runaway, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
Regardless of how you felt about it, you have to agree: no mainstream MC puts more effort and care into his music than Kanye. Sure, it can come off pretentious at times (ok, much of the time), but he's really trying to express something in his art and take it to new places. He doesn't always hit the mark, but musically, he's never disappointed me.
A toast to Yeezy.


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Conversations Episode 77
The chat:
MariaK: I'll be back.
Sheila: ok
woodenmask: Morning!
Sheila: HI John!
woodenmask: Remind me for the zillionth time - how do I listen to the conversation?
woodenmask: (Hi Sheila!)
Sheila: We will using ustream
Sheila: and possibly one of the streams
woodenmask: Getting excited about NASA?
Sheila: absolutely
Sheila: :)
Lisa Parisi: Good morning.
woodenmask: Drinking lots of Tang?
woodenmask: Morning Lisa
Lisa Parisi: I saw you are going to Educon John.
Sheila: Hi Lori
woodenmask: Excited about it. Got very inspired after talking to the students and faculty at SLA last year.
Lisa Parisi: Hi Lori
Lisa Parisi: Were you there last year?
woodenmask: Yes. You and I had a conversation in the Library.
Lisa Parisi: We did? I feel awful that I don't remember.
woodenmask: (laughing..) Don't. It's a good day for me when the worst I am is forgettable.
Lisa Parisi: LOL
Lisa Parisi: Hi Cheryl
cwoolwine: Hi trying to get the audio working
Lisa Parisi: Hi Amanda!
marragem: Morning everyone!
Sheila: Hi Amanda! Wide awake?
marragem: sort of
MariaK: Amanda - did you finish?
Lisa Parisi: Cheryl, we don't have audio up yet.
Lori Feldman: Hi Lisa! Hi all!
marragem: No Maria :(
Sheila: She's setting up.
Sheila: Welcome all!
Maureen: Hi Sheila
Maureen: Any audio yet?
Sheila: not yet.
Sheila: We have to remember how to do streaming again . . .
Maureen: :)
cwoolwine: ok thanks I can stop trying~!
woodenmask: What's the topic today? Why teachers are so much more attractive than other public sector workers?
Sheila: We'll be doing ustream and EdtechA
Maureen: @woodenamsk- thought it was how to increase teachers self esteem
MariaK: New Beginnings
Lisa Parisi: Starting in ustream and etta
Maureen: Yeas!
Maureen: Audio is good
marragem: @woodenmask lol not at 1:30 am in the morning they're not!
McTeach (Karen): Good morning!!!
Maureen: just in A, not ustream yet
Lisa Parisi: Refresh ustream
cwoolwine: hi everyone!
Maureen: got it
PeggyG: Good morning everyone! So great to have you back!!
woodenmask: Maria sounds smiley.
Maureen: always
McTeach (Karen): Maria always sounds smiley!
Maureen: Hi karen
McTeach (Karen): Hi Maureen!
marragem: yay!!!
PeggyG: Hearing you now! :-) Yeah!
McTeach (Karen): I should still be in bed!
PeggyG: @McTeach--did you ever go to bed??? :-)
MariaK: I am smiling
marragem: Karen - I should still be in bed!!
Maureen: Where are you Karen? It's 11:30 here
MariaK: not irish eyes - Italian eyes!
McTeach (Karen): Maureen - it's 8:30 here
McTeach (Karen): Probably should add the A.M.
woodenmask: Karen doesn't sleep much.
McTeach (Karen): Peggy...I got some sleep.
PeggyG: Hi Scott. Great to see you.
Maureen: Amanda should really be in bed... you're home right?
cwoolwine: Yes BLC was very good! Really enjoyed it
McTeach (Karen): @woodenmask sad, but true!
McTeach (Karen): I've missed all of you!
marragem: yes, Maureen. 1:30 am Monday here
Lisa Parisi: Lori, if you refresh ustream, you can hear there.
marragem: and very large lobster they were too!!
Lori Feldman: Got it. Just turned it on!
McTeach (Karen): Yay!! Amanda!!!!!
PeggyG: how fun!! pretend to play going to a workshop :-)
McTeach (Karen): Wait....Sheila was at ISTE???
Scott Shelhart: Good morning. Glad to hear the the show again.
Sheila: yes.
McTeach (Karen): How'd I miss you?!
Maureen: Karen, you never saw her? I saw Sheila
Lori Feldman: I had lots of your hugs Maria!
marragem: stressful!
McTeach (Karen): Lori...me too! Aren't they the best!!!
Maureen: Summer was way too short
Sheila: I was visiting with family too.
McTeach (Karen): Maureen...Amen to that!
marragem: I enjoyed being hijacked!
McTeach (Karen): Yay!!
McTeach (Karen): No!
PeggyG: @Lori Saw your Plurk about invites to join ISTE 2011 Ning. Why do we need an invite? Just curious.
marragem: yep, I've lost my US summer tan
McTeach (Karen): One of the best moments at ISTE for me was Maria's reaction to me!!
MariaK: I love you Karen!!!
McTeach (Karen): I lost hearing in my ear!
McTeach (Karen): Love you too! :)
PeggyG: I live in sunny Phoenix but never get a summer tan. Too hot!
Maureen: It was nice to see Christine in NH in August- her daughter came too
Lori Feldman: Not sure Peggy about ning invites for ISTE ning...weird huh?
Maureen: Are you co-teaching or lead/assistant?
PeggyG: usually you just join the Nings but I can't find anything about the 2011 Ning--still seeing the 2010 Ning.
Scott Shelhart: Ugh. One year away from being certified.
marragem: @Lori- isn't it because they wanted to start the ISTE11 ning anew? I got an invite because I was a member of the ISTE10 ning
PeggyG: that is a lot Lisa! Great that you have a team to collaborate and support all of your inclusion kids!
PeggyG: I was on the ISTE10 Ning too but didn't get an invite. :-(
Maureen: I'm enjoying all but my 9th graders this year. Tomorrow I'm doing a rewind day with them to restart... they're goofy
Maureen: I have 133 this year...
marragem: @Peggy - that's strange beacuse the email I received send to be a standard mail out
McTeach (Karen): What do you do for a writing assessment? I make things up as I go...not a lot of back-up.
11:44:00 Maureen: Largest class is 15, but it also means I have no time to help others...
11:44:45 Maureen: That is so cool Sheila!!
11:44:47 cwoolwine: AWESOME!!!!
11:44:55 PeggyG: that is so exciting Sheila!! So glad to hear the details!
11:45:02 marragem: very exciting!
11:45:08 MariaK: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/tweetup/index.html
11:45:09 Sheila: @7thscience
11:45:41 Lori Feldman: http://www.iste2011.org/ See if you can sign on. If not PP or DM me and I will send ning invite
11:46:21 PeggyG: Thanks Lori. That works. :-) I probably missed the email (inbox is kinda full)!
11:46:44 McTeach (Karen): Lori...just tried to log-in but couldn't. What's the deal???
11:46:47 Maureen: It says invitation only...
11:46:59 PeggyG: you are the perfect person to participate in that Sheila!!! I'm so excited for you and can't wait to see your tweets!
11:47:07 Maureen: Would think that ISTE members would be auto-invited
11:47:38 marragem: you would think that, Maureen
11:48:05 Lori Feldman: I thought it was odd...Feel so powerful though!;)
11:48:31 marragem: The Gems certainly will follow!
11:48:47 Lisa Parisi: Hello Vicky
11:49:13 Lori Feldman: Wow, our KDG classes are 30!
11:49:29 Maureen: @lori- what's your twitter ID to get an invite?
11:49:53 PeggyG: it's so sad to see Kdg classes so large!
11:49:59 Lori Feldman: Twitter and Plurk lfeld52 (Plurk shows Lori Feldman)
11:50:12 marragem: ours are up to 25, Peggy
11:50:33 PeggyG: do you have a classroom assistant @marragem?
11:52:00 marragem: they Preps (kindergarten eqiuvalent) do. The rest of the early years classes ( Yr 1-3) only have aides if you have ascertained children
11:52:52 Lori Feldman: Sorry Maureen...now try!
11:53:06 marragem: when we had preschool (kindergarten equivalent) we had staggered starts. That's gone by the wayside now that we have fulltime Prep
11:54:03 Maureen: Thank Lori
11:54:05 woodenmask: Maria's intern is very impressive.
11:54:15 PeggyG: I remember having these same conversations about pre-testing incoming K's and what a bad first experience it was--way back in the 70's!
11:54:42 PeggyG: that's a lot of adults in the room!
11:55:15 Lori Feldman: Wow Maria!
11:55:46 Lori Feldman: did anyone else lose audio?
11:55:53 marragem: no Lori
11:55:55 PeggyG: Maria, maybe you need to look into VolunteerSpot as a tool for managing all of these adults. She was our guest on Classroom 2.0 LIVE a few weeks ago and it is a fabulous tool!
11:56:00 Maureen: It's Ok for me on ustream
11:56:11 cwoolwine: I am good!
11:56:29 PeggyG: http://volunteerspot.com/
11:56:32 Lori Feldman: refreshed ustream and voila!
11:57:02 Sheila: Yah! :)
11:57:19 PeggyG: http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2010/08/volunteerspot-online-and-offl...
11:57:31 marragem: more girls than boys? Oh, I'd love that! Have had double the boys to girls for the last 8 years!
11:57:31 Sheila: Thanks Peggy for the link
11:57:49 Maureen: I came home Friday and went to bed at 6:30... tired already
11:57:57 Sheila: I have more girls this year and last year too.
11:58:00 PeggyG: Volunteerspot is an amazing management tool for volunteers and other adults to keep track of what they do, when
11:58:05 Lisa Parisi: I prefer the boys. Girls are very catty in fifth grade
11:58:35 woodenmask: 90% of our Middle School drama is Alpha-Girls.
11:58:40 PeggyG: What fun to be part of Rock our World!!! :-)
11:58:50 McTeach (Karen): Lisa...I have 26 girls this year, out of 34 students! Drama and cattiness are my life!
11:59:00 Maureen: @lisa- yes they can be, but 6th grade boys are so dorky at times- each grade is so different, hard to believe they are the same kids I knew last year
11:59:20 Sheila: Wow! @McTeach What was in the water that year?
11:59:33 McTeach (Karen): Sheila...that's a darn good question! :)
11:59:56 Lori Feldman: Yay for us resource teachers!
12:00:23 PeggyG: just keeping track of the times you have to send kids out can be a real challenge!
12:00:31 Maureen: I have one section with only 1 girl... and she's new in 6th grade. So far, she seems to be adjusting well- but it's tough being the one girl in a section of all boys
12:01:28 Vicky Sedgwick: My DD was the only girl in her 4th & 5th grade class and one of 2 girls for 6-8. She's now at an all girls' high school. :D
12:01:40 cwoolwine: Having SLP come in - I have found to be a better situation
12:02:10 Maureen: Maria-Is it too late to apply for ROW this time around? We have a new music teacher and would love to get her involved
12:02:40 MariaK: yes Maureen - deadline was the end of last week.
12:02:54 Maureen: @Vicky is that why she chose an all girls school?
12:03:08 Vicky Sedgwick: Would love to do ROW but we're a PC school.
12:03:17 woodenmask: INRE - being the Alpha: One of my students thought she had a tick on her scalp last year. I had to pick through her hair - Told her, "You know... I'm the SilverBack; shouldn't YOU be doing the grooming?"
12:03:23 Maureen: Thanks Maria- She probably needs some settle in time anyway... will try for the next one
12:03:35 Vicky Sedgwick: @Maureen Partially but she was also influenced by the fact that her older sister went there.
12:03:46 PeggyG: The ROW site says starting Sept 13-new season--click here for application to participate.
12:03:56 Maureen: @Vicky we're a PC school, but have macs in music, graphics- so it could work
12:04:13 PeggyG: maybe the signup time is past?
12:04:14 MariaK: I know, Peggy but they are not accepting anyone now.
12:04:19 Sheila: @woodenmask - :)
12:04:31 PeggyG: thanks Maria
12:04:36 Vicky Sedgwick: @Maureen, we have no macs at school & I personally don't have one either or I'd just use mine.
12:05:10 PeggyG: I do see the note saying "congratulations to the schools selected to participate" :-)
12:05:24 Maureen: @Vicky- I don't really understand why they have to be macs- since they are just mp3s- which can be generated by audacity or any other audio editor
12:05:58 Maureen: @Vicky, but I know when I asked them last year- they were insistent on the audio being created on macs
12:06:29 PeggyG: You can follow ROW on Facebook--great way to stay informed about the project :-)
12:06:48 Vicky Sedgwick: @Maureen Guess I'll need to buy a mac at some point. :D
12:07:05 PeggyG: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-Our-World/46190627445?ref=ts&v=wall
12:07:14 Maureen: @vicky me too- but I bought a new rototiller this spring instead- priorities
12:07:38 Vicky Sedgwick: Thanks @PeggyG
12:07:39 Lori Feldman: I have many meetings! Part of my job description for sped!
12:07:45 McTeach (Karen): You let them go to the bathroom??? Wow! You're nice!
12:07:51 PeggyG: meetings are a necessary evil :-) they really are important times for planning and communicating but often aren't managed well
12:07:53 Lori Feldman: I work with 8 teams daily!
12:08:16 MariaK: http://www.thinkingmoves.com/index.html
12:08:21 PeggyG: I love MeMuves!
12:08:33 cwoolwine: MeMoves is awesome!!!
12:08:44 PeggyG: I got the app right after the Seedlings show :-)
12:08:46 cwoolwine: I use it with Autistic Kids!
12:08:48 woodenmask: Medium-level chaos - got to go. Good to see everyone back.
12:09:02 Sheila: Bye woodenmask
12:09:07 Lisa Parisi: Bye John
12:09:18 Lori Feldmans: Is this the Peter Reynolds one?
12:09:31 PeggyG: http://edtechtalk.com/node/4768
12:09:41 PeggyG: That's the link to the Seedlings show :-)
12:09:42 Lori Feldmans: Soooo cool!
12:10:11 cwoolwine: I think the one Peter Reynolds has is SMART MOVES! very similar! maybe he does ME MOves also!
12:10:17 Lori Feldmans: had 2000+ doing this at our local conferences
12:10:31 marragem: all brain smart stuff
12:10:34 cwoolwine: SMart MOves does more so you can move on
12:11:04 PeggyG: White Paper with research about MeMoves http://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2010/webprogram/Paper5861.html
12:11:07 Lori Feldmans: How did I log out if I am still here?
12:11:17 Maureen: I love your expressions Maria- "cozy group"...
12:11:21 cwoolwine: It is Brain GYM type stuff!
12:11:24 Lisa Parisi: You're in as Lori Feldmans
12:11:27 McTeach (Karen): Lori...your name has an "s"
12:11:28 Lisa Parisi: with an s
12:11:32 Lori Feldmans: ahhhhhh
12:11:54 Maureen: The older kids don't think it's silly??
12:12:07 cwoolwine: The thumbs up!!!
12:13:02 PeggyG: have you seen the free software called "Stretch Break for Kids"? I love it for myself. I installed on my computer and it reminds me to stretch every 30 mins (I set the time).
12:13:07 Sheila: My 7th graders loved it. Asked for it after school even.
12:13:12 Lori Feldmans: want to compare the Smart Moves and Me Moves
12:13:30 cwoolwine: One of my AUtistic Kids Hums the music all day long and it helps keep him calm!
12:13:33 PeggyG: Some teachers use it to put up on the whiteboard for class breaks--has little movies to stretch with
12:13:50 Lisa Parisi: I have to get this dvd now.
12:14:45 marragem: maybe I needed it to help me focus yesterday, Maria
12:14:48 McTeach (Karen): I'm thinking the same thing Lisa!
12:15:11 PeggyG: http://www.paratec.com/sbform/kidsform.htm Form for Stretch Break for Kids
12:15:21 cwoolwine: I do it with the kids and it definetly helps keep me focused
12:16:40 McTeach (Karen): Of course there is!
12:16:48 McTeach (Karen): Thanks for the link, Peggy!
12:17:08 Lori Feldmans: Thanks Peggy!
12:17:15 Lisa Parisi: $60 for the dvd set. I think I am going to order it today.
12:17:23 PeggyG: MeMoves creators actually thanked Cheryl Oakes for having them on the Seedlings show on their facebook page :-)
12:17:36 marragem: think I ned to order it, too
12:17:40 PeggyG: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MeMoves/183178338023?v=wall
12:17:52 PeggyG: isn't that music so relaxing!!??
12:18:19 Lisa Parisi: Hello Paul
12:18:21 cwoolwine: I have it ordered for all my Self contained SPED classes this year
12:18:54 marragem: cool - they ship internationally
12:19:16 PeggyG: the research for it really supports using it with autistic kids--the reason they created it
12:19:43 Maureen: Have they really put up the ed site yet?
12:19:45 cwoolwine: They sell SMart Moves which is very similar!
12:19:56 Maureen: I got the email about ad free
12:20:15 Maureen: I would like to have an edu site
12:20:16 Vicky Sedgwick: Does anyone know what the education voki will cost?
12:20:27 PeggyG: International Dot Day :-)
12:20:37 PeggyG: Sept. 15th--fabulous book!
12:20:48 Vicky Sedgwick: I'm going to use it in the computer class this week.
12:20:57 cwoolwine: http://www.fablevision.com/smartmoves/
12:20:58 Lori Feldmans: Peter let me draw my own Dot on his iPad! Woot Woot!
12:21:16 PeggyG: awesome Lori! did you get a picture of that?
12:21:33 McTeach (Karen): Yay!!!! Dot Day!!!
12:21:35 marragem: Maria, did I buy 'The Dot'? Do you remember packing that?
12:22:01 marragem: okay - will buy it
12:22:15 PeggyG: My local Border's bookstore was all sold out a few weeks ago. Had to order online.
12:22:32 Lisa Parisi: http://www.fablevision.com/smartmoves/
12:22:46 marragem: don't have any of Peter Reynolds' books here in OZ - will order online
12:22:46 McTeach (Karen): Great...now I'm hungry!
12:22:52 PeggyG: you can buy online but not read online--Dot
12:23:04 Vicky Sedgwick: There is a "video" version of it online I think.
12:23:07 MariaK: http://www.peterhreynolds.com/dot/Dot_QandA.html
12:23:40 Lori Feldman: http://lfeld365.blogspot.com/2010/04/just-drew-dot-on-peter-reynolds-ipa...
12:23:48 Lori Feldman: Too cool!
12:23:55 PeggyG: http://www.peterhreynolds.com/dot/ Activity ideas for the Dot
12:25:38 Maureen: Simple machines and electricity were always my favorites to do with kids
12:26:12 PeggyG: I remember doing some of the SmartMoves in a group at the Constructivist Consortium before NECC a year ago. Everyone had such a great time!
12:26:25 Maureen: Kitchen chemistry was my all time favorite with younger kids
12:26:29 Lisa Parisi: http://energizingenergy.wikispaces.com/
12:27:16 PeggyG: yes it's a problem with the short URLs--they are clickable in the live chat but when they go into the archived text chat they aren't clickable and are missing part. Very frustrating
12:27:33 PeggyG: what an incredible wiki Lisa!!!
12:28:08 PeggyG: are you using it like a webquest?
12:28:21 marragem: yes!!
12:28:24 Maureen: Like your idea, but the whole idea of doing science a mile wide/inch deep- 18 weeks of stuff... many teachers will just "cover" it
12:28:28 Lisa Parisi: Really a project wiki Peggy.
12:28:52 PeggyG: so it's not a "self-guided" experience?
12:28:55 Lisa Parisi: That's why I am doing this, Maureen. I can't handle just doing surface learning.
12:29:05 Lisa Parisi: Yes, Peggy to a certain extent.
12:29:13 marragem: next term's inquiry is all set, thanks to Abi.
12:29:42 Maureen: @LIsa, I know- but so many others will not- and it's such a bad way to get get excited about science- they'll learn terms- not the joy and excitement
12:29:43 PeggyG: looks very comprehensive!!
12:29:58 marragem: she is!!
12:29:58 Lisa Parisi: You're right Maureen.
12:30:36 PeggyG: skype calls during that 15 minutes Sheila :-) connect with scientists or students doing science projects :-)
12:30:52 PeggyG: that was a fantastic presentation you did on Earthday Lisa!
12:31:02 PeggyG: even the principal stopped by to chat :-)
12:31:04 paul: Dr. Robert Ballard says if you don't get them excited about science by 5th6th gradeyou never will
12:31:13 Sheila: Unfortunately, I have different kids each day for the 15 minutes.
12:31:14 Lisa Parisi: Well, Paul, I hope this does it.
12:31:26 MariaK: http://k12onlineconference.org/
12:31:40 PeggyG: I'm really excited about the K12 online conference! Some awesome presenters and keynotes!!
12:31:50 PeggyG: I'm a worker-bee :-)
12:32:00 PeggyG: Cultivating the future
12:32:07 PeggyG: too funny!!
12:32:51 PeggyG: I can't wait to hear Tim Tyson again. It's been a long time since he presented online.
12:33:36 PeggyG: http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=603 Conference presenters organized by weeks
12:33:52 marragem: and we're onto that!
12:33:54 Maureen: Amanda- have you made up posters, badges yet?
12:34:08 marragem: not yet, Maureen.
12:34:12 PeggyG: a new feature for the conference this year is a Student Voices strand. Very exciting!
12:34:20 Maureen: I thought we should talk about that
12:34:39 PeggyG: that would be a great topic! I was following that chat
12:34:44 Vicky Sedgwick: Very interesting discussions on this
12:34:54 PeggyG: teachers who are also parents and how they can advocate for their kids
12:35:07 Maureen: We don't have to use the s word do we?
12:35:09 Lori Feldman: great topic! I have a child with an IEP...also have had my kids go to school in my building
12:35:26 Vicky Sedgwick: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1110269291446 Peter reading "The Dot"
12:35:39 paul: bye...thanks
12:35:43 MariaK: Thanks vicki
12:35:44 PeggyG: http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/a-parent-20s-back-to-school-dilemma/
12:35:50 MariaK: thanks peggy
12:36:02 PeggyG: Will Richardson's blog post
12:36:04 Vicky Sedgwick: http://macmomma.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-not-who-you-think-i-am.html - Lee's blog post
12:36:29 PeggyG: incredible comments to the posts
12:36:31 MariaK: http://macmomma.blogspot.com/
12:37:10 Sheila: http://ettconversations.blogspot.com/
12:37:14 PeggyG: yes keep the focus on the kids :-)
12:37:38 PeggyG: thanks for kicking the year off with such a fun, interesting conversation!
12:37:46 Lori Feldman: wont be here next saturday...Yom Kippur
12:37:46 PeggyG: have a great week everyone!
12:38:05 marragem: thansk for a great show, girls. I'm off to bed!
12:38:15 PeggyG: good night Amanda :-)
12:38:15 Maureen: Have a good week- thanks!
12:38:16 MariaK: Thanks for coming eveyone - Nice to be with you all again....miss our f2f contact from the summer!
12:38:23 cwoolwine: Thanks Enjoyed!
12:38:44 marragem: look forward to enxt week's show. I'll be on holidays!
12:38:55 McTeach (Karen): Thanks ladies! Glad you're back!
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The joys of dining at the mysterious -- almost mythical -- Auberge of the Flowering Hearth near the Grand Chartreuse Monastery are the only focus of author Roy Andries de Groot's memoir of his experiences there in around 1970. His descriptions are vivid. Every dish sounds luscious. The two old (middle aged?) ladies who run the Auberge drive their station wagon to Burgundy for wine, to their native Provence for special produce and freshly caught fish, and around the local mountainsides for artisan's cheeses.
One of the memorable dinners (actually, they're all memorable) finished thus:
"The cheeses, of strong character, were also ideal -- for the happy purpose of finishing the wine. The first, the famous Saint Nectaire, was a cow's milk cheese from the central mountains of the Auvergne. The best types are still farm-made, but all too many factories are now beginning to dot the valleys and turn out mass quantities of le Saint Nectaire industriel. The best cheeses are matured on rye mats in cool, damp caves. They are best eaten before they are four months old and begin to harden. The young inside flesh is very smooth and creamy -- in my opinion, this is one of the best soft cheese of France." (p. 170)Read it and wonder: will I ever eat anything like this? Every description brings up that question. In some cases, you could at least use the recipes in the second half of the book. But where would you get small game birds, wild mountain chamois, wild boar, or 1948 vintage wine? Even in France, hunting such animals is no longer legal, and wines of that era, if they exist at all, are in the hands of millionaire collectors.
The book is very enjoyable as an exercise in nostalgia, maybe for something you never had at all. I was close: we spent several months in that region of France at about the time deGroot was there. But we had no money at all so ate only a very few meals cooked in small restaurants. We rode up those mountains a few times on our motor-scooter (a classic Lambretta), but brought our own salami and bread from the student restaurant along for lunch!
Taking a step back, I find it clear that nostalgia for the artisans' food production appears in almost all descriptions of fine meals, especially in France. It drives many food writers today, but the amazing thing is that it was far from new in deGroot's time, either. DeGroot quotes a long passage from Stendhal (a local hero) who visited the Grand Chartreuse in 1837.
In this passage, Stendhal describes how he looked at the simple agriculture in the same valleys where deGroot found his Auberge 130 years later; he compared them with more highly developed regions. "In those areas of sophisticated farming,where one often sees forty ploughs working at the same time in the same field, there is the feeling of a great mass-manufacturing process." In the Alps, according to Stendhal, "one feels only the pure joy of the open land ..." (p. 148)
The feeling that agriculture and good food are changing for the worse is so far from new, that I almost distrust a writer who dwells on it! But there's such great charm in deGroot's descriptions that this is a minor point. He captures the delights of seasonal food at the Auberge. He presents the methods, shopping, and cooking of the two innkeepers throughout a typical year, explaining what's in season and how it tastes.
The book is a wonderful and classic food memoir, idealizing a moment in time and space and still appealing after 40 years. The author writes objectively, impersonally -- he inserts nothing about his personal life other than his love of the food. Most people today find it surprising when they learn that he was blind from injuries suffered during the war, but never once mentioned it. I consider this an indication of how he followed journalistic conventions of that time, very different from most current food-memoir writing.
Online, you can find an Auberge de l'Atre Fleuri in the same town, though I seriously doubt that it's a true descendant of deGroot's original. I'd love to go try it anyway.


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(CNN) -- Hanoi's embrace of one-time foe the U.S. and growing rancor with Vietnam War-era ally China may appear surprising, but the two nations share a long and complicated history of territorial disputes.
Vietnam and China, who established formal ties in 1950, have had border differences that trace back to the 1950's. These disputes were deferred while Beijing's southern neighbor was battling a civil war, and the U.S. entry into the conflict tied Northern Vietnam more closely to Beijing. As the Vietnam war wound down, however, territorial disputes began anew.
1973 -- Hanoi announces to Beijing its intentions to negotiate contracts with foreign firms for the exploration of oil in the Gulf of Tonkin, part of the South China Sea. The disputed islands in the South China Sea assume importance only after it is disclosed that they are near the potential sites of substantial offshore oil deposits.
January 1974 -- Chinese military units seize islands in the Paracels occupied by South Vietnamese armed forces, and Beijing claims sovereignty over the Spratlys.
Spring 1975 -- South Vietnam occupies part of the Spratly Islands.
1976 -- North and South Vietnam unify.
1978 -- Vietnam's treatment of the Hoa people - an ethnic Chinese group - becomes an issue when Hanoi institutes a crackdown on the Chinese community because of its pervasive role in domestic commerce in the South and its alleged subversive activities in the North. Vietnam's actions force an unprecedented exodus of thousands of Hoa across the border into China.
November 1978 -- Sino-Vietnam relations worsen when the Soviet Union and Vietnam sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation that calls for mutual assistance and consultation in the event of a security threat to either country.
February to March 1979 -- In the Sino-Vietnamese Border War, China launches the offensive in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia, which ends the reign of the China-backed Khmer Rouge. This becomes China's largest military operation since the Korean War.
1985 -- Throughout most of 1985 and into the early months of 1986, Vietnam's border provinces are subject to intense artillery and mortar shelling. China issues vague threats to Vietnam of a "second lesson" over the stalemate with Cambodia.
1988 -- China and Vietnam fight a naval battle just off the Spratly Islands. 70 Vietnamese sailors are killed.
November 1991 -- China and Vietnam normalize relations after more than a decade of hostility.
December 1999 -- The two countries sign the Land Border Treaty.
December 2000 -- Vietnam and China sign two agreements to resolve a long-standing territorial dispute over the resource rich Gulf of Tonkin. The agreements demarcate territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, as well as outlining regulations for fisheries.
May 2003 -- The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry issues a "sovereignty" declaration on the Chinese ban on fishing in the South China Sea, claiming that Vietnam had undisputed "sovereignty" rights over the Paracel and Spratly islands.
May 25, 2011 -- A Vietnamese ship has its cables cut by Chinese patrol boats while conducting a underwater survey of the South China Sea.
June 9, 2011 -- Vietnam's foreign ministry says a Chinese fishing boat supported by two Chinese naval patrol craft cut a cable being used by a seismic survey craft operated by state-run energy company PetroVietnam.
June 13, 2011 -- Vietnam holds live-fire drills in the South China Sea amid high tensions with China over disputed waters.


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"He wants a second chance. I want a divorce. To get what I want, I'll have to give him what he does."
A very emotional second chance romance is coming from Nicole Williams on 18 September 2017 about a couple on the brink of divorce, but after five years of separation, the husband is asking for a chance to prove he's changed—he wants one month to make his wife fall in love with him again and if she doesn't, he'll sign the papers. Enjoy a sneak peek at Exes with Benefits…
It was the one relationship guarantee we could all expect. Whether it was death or circumstance, tragedy or choice, it was the only promise we were assured. Goodbye. It had been coming since the day we met, and now it was here. Sooner than I'd hoped. Even sooner than the sensible segment of me had predicted.
Still, it was later than maybe I should have expected out of a relationship with Canaan Ford.
I'd been waiting all night for his truck to rumble up the driveway when it finally did just past two a.m.. Before his footsteps echoed up the stairs, I shouldered the couple of bags I'd packed and waited in the shadows of the hallway. My paintbrushes were sticking out of one of my oversized totes, tickling the underside of my arm. I'd packed everything that seemed important at the time, but now, I wasn't sure that what I'd stuffed in my bags mattered at all.
It was late, dark, and Canaan would be coming home exhausted, hurting, and some degree of drunk. He wouldn't see me, and I could just slip away without him knowing.
Maybe I should have left before he made it back, but whenever I tried, my feet froze to the floor before I could make it to the door. I needed to wait for him to get home first—to make sure he was okay before I left him. That might have been a messed up model of morality, but most of Canaan's and my relationship was messed up, from the beginning to now, the ending.
He struggled with the key in the lock before shoving the door open and clomping straight toward the couch. He'd stopped crawling into bed beside me after a night of fighting and drinking months ago, like he thought it would spare me the pain of seeing him bloodied and plastered. It never had. The black eyes, the swollen lips, the bruised ribs; they were that much worse in the light of morning.
Canaan had barely crashed onto the sofa before his breathing evened out. Still, I waited another minute in the hallway before moving into the living room.
Don't look, Maggie. Don't let yourself look at him.
I looked. Of course I looked. I never listened to what was best for me—if I had, my life would have wound up so much differently.
He was already passed out, sprawled across the couch we'd bought at a yard sale the summer before . . .
Before all of this.
One arm and one leg were hanging off the end, his face tipped far enough toward me I could gauge the type of fight he'd been in tonight. A good one by Canaan's definition—the best kind. The type where his opponent got in as many hits as he did. The type of fight that made him almost question if it would be the first one he'd lose. Canaan loved the challenge, the fight. He thrived off of chaos, seeming to wilt when life was simple. I used to admire that about him, and maybe I still did. It just wasn't the life for me. I couldn't live life like it was a battle—not anymore.
He was passed out hard, but I still crept slowly toward the front door, my heart thundering as the boards creaked below me. Even though I was moving toward the door, my eyes stayed on him.
Look away.
I couldn't. Canaan was the best part of my life. And the worst. The best memories. And the worst. He was the high and the low and I was so damn tired of the sick cycle I thought would kill me one day.
As my hand cupped around the cool doorknob, my eyes burned. This was it. As resolved as I'd felt in the weeks leading up to this, I felt like I was being torn in half by walking away. I knew if I stayed, this relationship would be the end of me. But at the moment, leaving felt like the same.
Lying on that couch, he looked so vulnerable. Almost like he needed someone to protect him. From the world. From his demons. From himself. I'd tried. God, I'd been trying for what felt like forever, but the only thing I had to show for my efforts was scars and pain.
One of his eyes was swollen shut, his bottom lip three times its normal size, and he'd split the same eyebrow open again. It was going to need stiches. Six, I guessed. I'd gotten really good as estimating the number of stiches needed to seal a wound.
A sob rose from my chest, but I managed to swallow it back down. He was the only boy I'd ever loved—the only one I'd ever come close to loving. In some ways, he was perfect for me. But in more ways, especially lately, he was entirely wrong for me.
That was why I needed to leave. We might have been good together, but we weren't good for each other. I knew that now.
I opened the door slowly, so it wouldn't make a sound, then I let myself take one last look at the life I was leaving behind before I forced myself to walk away.
Now that I wasn't looking at him, moving was easier. Each step down from our little apartment above the garage came quicker, so by the time I reached the ground, I was jogging.
Canaan's truck was parked right beside my old car. Ancient was maybe a better description of how "mature" my car was. It was almost like he'd known I was going to leave tonight, because he'd parked his truck so close I could barely crack my door open half a foot. Getting my bags tossed into the backseat and managing to wiggle in through the door was a tight fit, but I made it work.
The moment I was inside, I jammed the key in the ignition and turned it over. I didn't pause. I didn't flinch. The hardest part was behind me, and now I needed to keep moving.
Easing my car around the truck, I noticed the one light burning inside the big house in my rearview mirror. Grandma knew what was happening tonight and was keeping her light on for me as her unique way of expressing that no matter what, she was here for me. She'd keep the light on—even when it felt like there was nothing but darkness around me.
My throat constricted as I kept backing down the long driveway. I'd tried saving him, but it had cost me almost everything. I was taking what I had left and saving myself.
As I rolled past Grandma's front porch, my gaze shifted from the rearview mirror to that little garage apartment I'd lived the last eleven months in. The door was open, light was streaming from inside, and a dark, towering shadow loomed in the doorway.
My foot instinctively moved toward the brake. Canaan was too far away for me to determine the look on his face, but I could imagine it. It came easy since I'd known him as long as I had. Knowing his face was like second nature
He stayed unmoving in that doorway for a moment, my car doing the same. It wasn't until he started moving down the stairs that my foot flew back to the gas. If he got to me before I made it out of this driveway, I wouldn't leave. I knew it. Walking away from someone I loved was hard enough, but Canaan wasn't just someone I loved—he was someone I'd shared everything with. He'd walked with me through the hardest part of my life, and I'd walked with him through his. We'd been each other's beacon, shelter, and compass through all of life's shit . . .
So how had we gotten here? To this hopeless, dead end of a place?
He was charging down the stairs now, taking them two at a time. How was he able to move that nimbly when he'd just been comatose on the couch?
The windows were rolled up, but his shout broke through the glass, sounding so close it was almost like he was pressed against me, whispering it into my ear.
He sprinted the moment his feet touched the ground, his long arms pumping hard at his sides.
"Canaan, don't," I whispered inside the car, my lower lip trembling as I focused on the driveway behind me. "Please don't."
I didn't miss the shadow that had appeared in that lit window. Grandma was watching me leave, witnessing Canaan trying to convince me to stay. Before, his attempts had been successful, but not this time. I couldn't stay for him one more time—I had to leave for me.
"Maggie! Please!"
Canaan's shouts were so loud, they were going to wake up the neighbors a few acres over. Each word emanated like a blast inside the car.
"Let me go," I whispered as I swung the car onto the street.
Right before I could punch it into drive and hit the gas, Canaan swooped in front of the car. His chest was moving hard from the exertion, his snug white tee stained with fresh and dried blood. His face was so messed up it was practically unrecognizable, but I couldn't help seeing the young boy with a clip-on tie walk up to me when I was frozen on a porch step, appraising me with those wild gold eyes before holding out a tiny box. How had that boy, who'd saved me back then, become the ruin of me now?
When I revved the engine, he didn't move. Instead, he slid closer so his legs were pushing against the bumper. He raised his arms like he was surrendering, his unswollen eye landing on me. "I'm not letting you leave. Not without a fight."
A breath rolled past my lips—a fight. Everything was a fight with him. He couldn't land enough hits or take enough. His guilt wouldn't let him.
Cranking down the window, I made myself glare at him. It was harder to achieve than it should have been. "I'm not something you win or lose in a fight."
His jaw moved as he pressed his hands into the hood of the car. "You fight for what's important. That's the way life is. And you are worth every fight I have in me."
"You're too busy fighting everyone else—including yourself—to fight for me." My sight blurred as I stared at him. So little of the person I'd fallen in love with remained. So little of who he'd fallen in love with remained in me as well. "I can't wait around, watching you kill yourself one fight and drink at a time."
He wiped at his split-open brow, leaving a streak of blood on his forearm. "I can change."
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. How many times had I heard those words come from his lips? Those same lips that claimed ownership of my first kiss?
"Yeah, you can." I steeled myself against him a little more. "That's not your problem. Your problem is that you won't change."
"This time I will." His head whipped side to side. "It's taken this, you trying to leave me, to slap some sense into me."
I'd tried leaving so many times. This was just the furthest I'd ever made it. "I'm not trying to leave you. I am leaving you." I made myself look at him. I made myself appear strong when I felt so very opposite. "This is it."
He slowly came around the side of the car toward me. I rolled up the window halfway, aiming my eyes at the road in front of me.
"One more chance." Even from a few feet back, I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I could smell the sweat and blood on him mixed with it, the trace of perfume that didn't belong to me.
"You've had a thousand one more chances." I studied him from the corners of my eyes, knowing better than to let them lock on his when he was this close. "This was your last one."
"Maggie . . ." His hands formed around the lip of the window. His knuckles were split open and swollen, dried blood covering them. Still, I wasn't sure I'd ever craved having them reach for me more. I wasn't sure I'd ever needed him to pull me to his broken body and soul more than I did right then.
In that moment, I might have needed him more than I needed air, but I couldn't give in. Kicking the habit was the only way to cure myself.
"Let me go, Canaan." My legs were trembling as my foot moved back to the gas.
His head lowered so it was in line with mine. "You're my wife."
My left hand curled farther around the steering wheel, until I couldn't see the gold band circling my finger. "No. I was your wife."
His head dropped for half a second, his eyes flashing with defeat right before. "I love you."
My chest ached. The man was the boy again, and I wanted to save him the way he'd saved me. But I couldn't. The only person who could save Canaan Ford was Canaan Ford.
"I promised to love you forever, and I will." My foot touched the accelerator. "But I can't spend forever with you."
His hands braced around the window harder when I rolled forward. "I made a promise. To you, and to myself. A promise to love you forever. To look after you as long."
When I found my mind drifting to that overcast afternoon eleven months ago, my heart wringing when I remembered the way he'd stared at me as we repeated those phrases in the courthouse, I shook my head. Good memories weren't enough. Hope wasn't enough. Empty promises weren't even close to enough.
"We exchanged vows." My eyes focused on the road in front of me, letting go of the dead end beside me. "There's a difference between saying them and meaning them."
When my foot pushed down on the gas, Canaan moved with the car. "I'm not letting you go. I'm not giving up." The car moved faster, his feet pounding the asphalt as he struggled to keep up.
"I know. But I'm giving in." Breaking my own rule, I let my eyes meet his before punching the gas pedal as far down as it would go. "Goodbye."
That was enough. Hearing that word shocked him just enough to still him. For one second. I didn't ease up on the gas, not even when I heard his fists pounding the trunk as he struggled to keep up.
"I can change!" His footsteps were thundering after the car. "I will change."
With him behind me, I let the tears I'd been fighting fall. Everything I'd ever known—my whole life—was getting smaller and smaller behind me. With every tick of the odometer.
"MAGGIE!!!" His voice pierced the air one last time before I was too far away to hear whatever came next.
It was morning by the time I stopped seeing his reflection in the rearview mirror, still chasing me into my new life.


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Introducing: AppaMoms
March 31, 2014 in Press
This season we searched the internet high and low to find moms with just the right touch of cool and asked them to join us as part of a new initiative program for Appaman. We have coined these fearlessly fabulous group of bloggers the AppaMoms.
We'd like to take this moment to welcome them and all their awesomeness: Mom Generations, Pop Street Kidz and Stroller in the City [applause]. We highly recommend you give them a follow and check out their blogs to learn what they are all about!
As AppaMoms, Mom Generations, Pop Street Kidz and Stoller in the City were able to hand pick Appaman outfits for their little ones to try them out out and tell us what they think. We can't wait to see what they have to say. Stay tuned for more from the AppaMoms.
MomGenerations / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
Stroller in the City / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter
Pop Street Kidz / Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest / Twitter


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Understanding Hearing Loss and Deafness
Hearing loss can vary from slight loss to complete deafness. Some individuals may wear hearing aids. Some persons with hearing loss use sign language to communicate, others read lips and are able to speak, and some use a combination of both methods.
People with hearing loss face challenges in communicating, particularly in crowds. This difficulty may result in feelings of loneliness, frustration, anger, low self-worth, hopelessness, and depression.
Ways to Help
- Consult with the individual and the family to assess needs and determine what resources are available. Be sensitive that a person's reading and writing abilities may be different from his or her ability to communicate with sign language.
- Consult with the individual, the family, or the caregiver to determine how the person communicates, how he or she learns best, and what assistance is needed in order for him or her to participate and learn. This information will help in deciding how to best meet the member's needs.
- Make every reasonable effort to help individuals with hearing loss and deafness interact with other members to help them understand what is being said and to share their own thoughts and feelings. Assistance for individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf may include:
- Hearing devices
- Microphones
- FM systems
- Closed, open, or real-time captioning
- The use of sign language and interpreters if the individual knows sign
Teaching Tips
- Find ways to communicate. Write words or draw pictures on paper. Use a word processor or computer. If requested or if it will be helpful, have someone take notes.
- Look directly at the person and speak normally. If the person does not understand a word, repeat the word or use another word that means the same thing. Do not speak louder.
- Find ways to present information visually. For example, use pictures, a projector, posters, or a whiteboard. Be sure to allow the individual time to read before continuing. Individuals with hearing loss often rely on visual means as a way to learn.
- Introduce and explain vocabulary. Review new words and information frequently.
- Ask if your chapel is equipped with amplification systems and listening devices.
- Use closed-captioning or subtitles where available. Be sure the equipment is set up before a meeting starts.
- Discover how the family or caregiver communicates with the individual.
Those Who Are Deaf and Use ASL
If there is a member in your ward who is deaf and uses sign language, consider the following ideas to help him or her feel welcome and included in your ward:
- Look at a person when the person signs, and speak directly to him or her. Do not focus your attention on the interpreter.
- Consider setting up a sign language class on a ward or stake basis.
- Direct them to ASL materials at asl.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
- In group settings, individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf and their interpreters can "listen" to only one person at a time. You will need to pause long enough for the interpreter to finish before expecting the person to respond to you.
- Make sure that lighting is adequate and that the person has a clear view of the person who is talking or of the interpreter. Avoid having the person who is speaking standing in front of a window or bright light that will cast a shadow on his or her face. Bring a flashlight when you darken the room.
- Be aware that there are several devices (such as a TDD [Telecommunication Device for the Deaf], text messaging on cell phones, or electronic pagers) or relay services (telephone or videophone) that can assist members with hearing loss to communicate over the phone. Some devices may be available for use in Church buildings and may be ordered by members of a stake presidency, a stake physical facilities representative, or a multistake preventive maintenance supervisor.
- Find an interpreter if possible. Seek assistance from ward members, priesthood leaders, missionaries returning from missions serving the deaf, family members, community agencies, and interpreter training programs. If parents or family members are the only regular interpreters, it is often wise to find others to interpret. This gives deaf individuals another avenue for interacting with others and can lighten the demands on frequently overburdened family members.
- Create a list of qualified interpreters. Solicit names from local priesthood leaders to add to your list.
- Arrange seating for the individual and interpreter near the teacher or speaker, but not in such a prominent way as to distract other members of the class or congregation.
Church Membership Records
Members who use sign language and their families may choose to have their Church membership records in one of the following places:
- Their home ward
- A designated host ward within a geographic area to which a group for the deaf is assigned
- A ward or branch organized for members who use sign language


text:
Linux Foundation Formed With Backing From HP, IBM, Intel
The new group, which will employ Linux inventor Linus Torvalds, is being formed from the merger of Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group.
January 19, 2007
Two groups committed to the business adoption of Linux are merging to streamline operations and represent Linux with one voice.
The Open Source Development Labs in Beaverton, Ore., will combine with the Free Standards Group in San Francisco to form The Linux Foundation. The two six-year old groups shared overlapping memberships of business sponsors and overlapping goals, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the new foundation.
"We will be a vendor-neutral organization capable of responding to competitors' attacks and FUD," Zemlin said in an interview Friday. He is the former executive director of the Free Standards Group.
The merger still needs to be ratified by the members of the two groups, which is expected to be completed in early February.
While the foundation will continue the activities of both groups, the merger also represents some continued paring down and refocusing of goals. First and foremost, Zemlin said, will be the continued independent employment of Linus Torvalds and other Linux kernel maintainers.
"We will provide a safe haven for key developers," Zemlin said, citing Linux package maintainer Stephen Hemminger as well as Torvalds. Andrew Morton, sometimes referred to as Torvalds' right-hand man as a kernel maintainer, left a job sponsored by the Open Source Development Labs in August to continue his Linux work at Google.
Torvalds, Hemminger, and other kernel developers were previously supported by OSDL. In December the group announced that it was cutting nine of 28 staff members and turning operations over to Mike Temple, its chief financial officer. At the time, OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen resigned to pursue other opportunities.
Both groups depended on corporate sponsors for their annual budgets.
Key backers of The Linux Foundation include Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Novell, and Oracle. The group will have 70 vendor sponsors in all. Other members include Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC.
Zemlin said the foundation will continue to supply the Linux Standard Base, an agreed-upon set of system functionality that is supported by major Linux distributions. Keeping the Linux core functionality following a standard allows developers to produce applications that will run with different versions of Linux without modifications. The foundation also will provide the Linux Developer Network, which provides information and specifications on the services and interfaces that work with Linux.
The foundation will manage the Linux trademark and provide legal services, including the Open Source As Prior Art project to defend against patent challenges, and the Patent Commons, where companies may contribute their patents to be used in defense of Linux.
"Microsoft spends a lot of money protecting its Windows platform," Zemlin said. "We're going to do the same thing."
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Source: Greenito.com
Do you tell your budtender just to give you $20, $50, or $100 worth of weed without knowing how much actual medicine you're getting for your money? Have you ever felt embarrassed when your budtender asks if you want a dub or an eighth because you have no @#!$ing idea what they are talking about?
Does the world stop making sense when your budtender tells you how much an ounce of your favorite strain costs? It's ok, you're not alone. We've all been there.
Many people who are green to buying grass have felt this way at one point or another. That's because weed measurements are messed up.
There, we said it! Weed measurements are messed up. Whew, feels good to get that off our chest. Seems like someone should reform this particular speed bump in canna-culture. But, honestly, the marijuana metric system has been around for so long that it's going to be nearly impossible to change. Better just to get used to it.
That's why the experts at Honest Marijuana have produced this instructional article—to help you make sense of the various standard amounts that you'll find in your local dispensary. That way, you don't have to look like a total newb when you make your first buy. Weed measurements no longer need to be a mystery!
Source: Pinterest.com
Along the way, we'll also:
- Explain all the ganja jargon commonly used among cannabis users in the United States.
- Break down some regional pot prices by size so you can make sure you're not getting ripped off by your reefer retailer.
- Establish some cannabis concentrate conversions so you know roughly how much marijuana it takes to make butter for concentrates, edibles, oil, and tinctures.
If you want to become an expert in marijuana measurement, read this guide from start to finish. If you've come here looking for something specific, we'll help you find it. Follow these links to each section of the article:
- Marijuana Measurement Madness
- Ganja Jargon for Measuring Weed
- Endo-Weed Economics
- Cannabis Concentrate Measurements
- Making the Marijuana Math Make Sense
And don't feel bad if you don't get it all down on the first try. It may take a while to understand all the conversions and jargon. But with a little practice, you'll be talking like a long-time stoner in no time.
Marijuana Measurement Madness
Most Americans are used to measuring things with the United States' Customary Units as opposed to the International System of Units, better known as the Metric System.
Indeed, one of the most confusing things about purchasing and consuming cannabis in the United States is that we use a combination of international metrics and US units to describe the quantities of cannabis we use in our everyday lives.
Source: Etsy.com
Ounces and pounds are examples of US Customary Units that we borrowed from the British before General Washington's hemp-clad continental army won our nation's independence.
Source: Leafly.com
The gram, a measurement of mass from the International System of Units, originally referred to the weight of a cubic centimeter of water. A gram is now more simply defined as one one-thousandth of a kilogram, which is the current base unit of the international metric system.
The general confusion and vague jargon that every single cannabis consumer has to comprehend in order to keep track of how much medicine they buy and use is the result of the discrepancies between international and U.S. scientific measurement systems.
That's why weed measurements are so confusing: they are a mix of two different measurement systems. It's like watching a movie that starts off as a rom-com and then suddenly changes to a horror movie about twenty minutes in. At the end, you're left scratching your head and wondering what the hell just happened.
But it doesn't stop there. Even if you understand the whole grams-ounces-pound thing, you still have to contend with the long list of slang terms that have come and gone over the years.
In the next section, we'll clarify the conversion between grams and ounces and introduce you to the corresponding ganja jargon.
Ganja Jargon for Measuring Weed
Source: Forum.Grasscity.com
There's a lot of marijuana slang floating around out there. For the most part, though, it all revolves around a few choice terms. Your budtender will typically refer to their Mary Jane by the following names:
- Dime
- Dub
- Eighth
- Quarter
- Half
- Ounce
- Full O (or just O)
- Z (yes, just the letter Z)
Here's the definition of each.
Dime & Dub
A dime bag or a dub sack of weed is stoner slang for $10- or $20-worth of weed respectively. The amount of weed you'll actually get in exchange for $10-$20 varies wildly depending upon where in the country (or the world) you're buying your pot.
Eighth, Quarter, Half
The terms Eighth, Quarter, and Half are slang for portions of an ounce of pot. Here are the gram-to-ounce equivalents:
- An Eighth = 3.5 grams
- A Quarter = 7 grams
- A Half = 14 grams
Ounce, Full O, Z
"Ounce" isn't a slang term, but "Full O" and "Z" certainly are! A Full O (or just O) and a Z refer to a full ounce (or 28 grams) of marijuana. An ounce is also the most marijuana that a resident of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington can legally possess in public.
"Full O" is fairly self-explanatory (short for full ounce), but you may be wondering where in the wide weed world the term "Z" came from. As with most cannabis slang, the exact origins of the word are lost in the pot haze of time.
Most long-time stoners agree, though, that they — or their canna-forefathers (and foremothers) — used the term as a sort of code so they didn't have to say ounce directly.
"Why couldn't they say ounce?" you ask. Well, remember, not so long ago, weed was lumped together with a host of really nasty drugs like heroin and crack. Most of these were sold in increments that included the ounce.
So, if you were overheard asking to buy an ounce, there was a pretty good chance you were looking to score an illegal substance. Hence the need for a code word like "Z."
But why "Z" and not "R" or "J" or something else entirely? Again, we don't know for sure, but the consensus usually falls into one of two camps, with the second being the most common.
- "Z" refers to the final letter in the abbreviation for the word ounce (i.e., oz.). Sounds good, right? Still, it does seem like a bit of a stretch. The next explanation feels a lot more likely.
- Back in the day, we didn't have the cool packaging we have now. A glass jar was a bit cumbersome and prone to break should a sky-high stoner drop it or fall down. To avoid this danger, buds and other marijuana products were often sold in plastic baggies. When Ziploc bags came on the market, it was only natural that cannaseurs would use them to keep their weed fresh. And by a stroke of good fortune, an ounce of marijuana would fit nicely (most of the time) in these containers. See where we're going? So if you wanted to buy an ounce of pot, you could say, "I'd like to purchase a Ziploc baggie of your finest marijuana product, good sir." Or you could just say, "Gimme a Z, man." Which would you choose? Yeah, us too.
We hate homework too, but there's a reason schools have been doling out take-home assignments since the dawn of time — it works. Practice — though it won't make perfect — does make better. And that's all we really care about here: improving the way we buy weed.
One of the best ways to do that — to get a grip on the marijuana metric system — is to measure amounts for yourself at home.
And when you think about it, this type of homework isn't nearly as bad as memorizing multiplication tables (some of us still can't remember the product of 8×7) because it involves everyone's favorite topic: dating Mary Jane.
Plus, we actually suggest that you burn a blunt before tackling this homework and then treat yourself to a pizza when you're done.
You might even want to incorporate weed measurements into your next toke sesh with friends. Guessing what weighs what would make an entertaining game to play before, during, and after the smoke circle.
But, hey, do what you want. There're no hard or fast rules for this homework. You won't even be graded. You will, however, be judged by those around you which can be the harshest grade of all.
What You'll Need
You will need some supplies for this, so plan accordingly.
- Food scale
- Marijuana substitute
- Seven bowls for separating your stash
- Measuring spoons (we're just using these to scoop small amounts so don't worry about trying to convert from grams our ounces to teaspoons)
Food scales are cheap and easy to find, and you can probably find a suitable model at your local market. As a bonus, once you're finished practicing your weed measurements, you can use the scale to weigh your food.
Be sure to purchase a model that allows you to switch between ounces and grams.
As for the marijuana substitute, we prefer oregano for its symbolic value in cannabis history and culture.
Honestly, you don't need a marijuana substitute if you've got a lot of the real thing lying around. But be warned, we will be weighing out 4 ounces (¼ pound), so you'll need at least that much to get through the assignment.
Now you see why we suggest a substitute? A quarter-pound of weed purchased all at one time will run you anywhere from $400 to $800 (check local listings). A quarter-pound of oregano purchased at your local market will run you less than $2. The choice is obvious to us.
- Set your food scale to grams. If your model doesn't offer this feature, you're stuck with ounces. Don't worry. We'll make due.
- Reset the scale to zero by pressing "tare."
- Scoop or sprinkle a small amount of plant matter (marijuana or equivalent substitute) onto the scale until you reach 0.5 grams (0.017 or 0.018 ounces). It won't take much.
- Dump this amount into one of your seven bowls.
- Reset the scale.
- Add plant matter to the scale until it read 1 gram (0.035 ounces).
- Dump this amount into another bowl.
- Compare the two amounts.
- These are the most common gram units you'll find in the marijuana metric system so try and get an eye for their relative size.
- Set your food scale to ounces.
- Reset to zero.
- Scoop plant matter onto your scale until it reads 0.125 ounces (3.5 grams).
- This is an eighth of weed.
- Dump it into another bowl.
- Reset your scale.
- Pile on enough plant matter to take the scale to 0.25 ounces (7 grams).
- This is a quarter (of an ounce).
- Dump it into another bowl.
- Reset your scale.
- Measure out 0.5 ounces (14 grams).
- Dump it into your fifth bowl.
- Reset your scale.
- Measure out 1.0 ounces (28 grams).
- This is, as you might guess, an ounce, an "O", or a "Z".
- Dump that into your sixth bowl.
- Reset your scale.
- Now, just for fun, measure out 2.0 ounces (56 grams or ¼ pound).
- Dump that into your seventh bowl.
- Stand back and visually compare each amount.
- Repeat the process for even more practice.
Being able to visually recognize the general size of a pile of weed — even if it's not exact — makes buying it even easier.
When you think you've got the size of each pile in your head, try this test:
- Weigh one of your bowls on the scale.
- Remove the bowl and reset the scale.
- Pick an amount of weed you want to try to measure (let's say, an eighth of an ounce).
- Pour what you think is that amount into the bowl.
- Place the bowl on the scale.
- Subtract the weight of the bowl from the new reading.
- That number is how much plant matter is in the bowl.
Did you get close to the number you were trying to measure? Try it again with another amount.
Endo-Weed Economics
Asking for a dime usually means you are asking for $10-worth of cannabis. This amount of cannabis (often 0.5g) is usually just enough weed to roll into a decent-sized joint. That said, it is becoming increasingly rare to find so-called "dime-bag dealers" who will sell such a small amount of sinsemilla.
Source: Quickmeme.com
Asking for a dub usually means you are asking for a full gram of cannabis. One gram of weed is what you'll typically find in a single blunt or cigar leaf joint. You can expect to pay $20 for a dub of weed in major cities in the Midwest and along the eastern seaboard (Chicago all the way to Boston).
However, Harrison Tesoura Schultz, co-founder of Occupy Weed Street, has paid up to $50 for a single gram of pot from delivery services in New York City.
Anything less than 1.5 grams for $20 was a rip off in Oregon prior to July 8, 2014, when recreational cannabis became available for sale. Now it's common to get 3.5 grams or "an eighth" of high-quality cannabis for $20 in Oregon.
Source: Ryot.org
The cost of an ounce of weed will vary widely according to the quality and popularity of the strain, of course. However, regulating and taxing marijuana drives down the price of pot and helps cannabis consumers save lots of money.
A high-quality ounce of weed typically costs between $200 and $245 where recreational reefer use is legal in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. An ounce of pot costs comparatively more in states where marijuana hasn't been legalized yet. Cannabis costs close to $300 per ounce in Florida, nearly $360 in New York, and just over $350 per ounce in Illinois, according to priceofweed.com.
The price for an ounce of pot is the basis of the prices for the other common portions of weed that are typically sold. For example, the best deal you'll find in New York City (a.k.a. the marijuana arrest capital of the world) is $45 for an eighth of an ounce ($360 divided by 8).
You can purchase the same amount of high-quality cannabis for as little as $25 (or less) in certain cities in Oregon.
Source: Hempbeach.com
Purchasing a small electronic scale is the best way to make sure that you're not paying more than you should be for pot. It's also the most accurate way to measure your doses of medicinal marijuana. You can get a sense of how much you can expect to pay for pot in your part of the world from priceofweed.com, a global database of crowdsourced cannabis prices.
We highly recommend reporting any really good (and really bad) deals you get on your medicine to that same website. This will help control the market and make the average price of marijuana more affordable.
Cannabis Concentrate Measurements
It's typical to produce about two to six grams of dabs or butane hash oil (wax) from a full ounce, or 28 grams, of ganja. Vaporizable cannabis concentrates can cost anywhere between $20 (if you're lucky) up to $100 per gram.
Source: Leafly.com
An ounce of pot will also produce about three to four grams of the same cannabis oil that Rick Simpson used to save himself and thousands of other medical marijuana patients from terminal cancer.
Colorado residents can buy Rick Simpson oil for $25 dollars a gram from legal dispensaries, such as Caregivers for Life.
Source: Sorendreier.com
You can make way more cannabutter than you would ever want to eat in a single weed edible serving with an ounce of weed depending on how well you can make it.
Most marijuana users make their own cannabutter, but you can buy a 1.5-ounce jar of high-quality cannabutter from top THC chef Julie Dooley for $35-$30 dollars.
Source: Patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com
An eighth of an ounce of high-quality cannabis produces about 30-34 doses of marijuana tincture if you make it yourself, and a small bottle of about 100 drops costs around $20 dollars.
Making the Marijuana Math Make Sense
Source: Quickmeme.com
Is the marijuana math adding up? You should be able to calculate that Snoop Dogg is smoking not quite three (2.89) ounces of cannabis a day since he says he smokes 81 blunts every day, given that 1 blunt equals about 1 gram and there are 28 grams in one full ounce of marijuana.
It is entirely possible that Snoop has smoked nearly an entire ton of cannabis over the course of his life if we take his estimate as accurate.
Source: Tubmlr.com
The marijuana metric system is a confusing class of Standard International Units and US Customary units. But when you boil it all down, the main cannabis conversion you need to remember is:
- 1 ounce of weed = 28 grams
From there, it's pretty easy to decipher the ganja jargon to calculate that "a half" equals 14 grams, "a quarter" equals 7 grams, an eighth equals 3.5 gram, and "a dub" will typically equal one full gram of marijuana.
Once you know how to do the math, you can determine if making your own marijuana concentrates, oils, edibles, and tinctures will help you save on cannabis costs based upon the price of weed in your area.
Make sure to support legalization efforts on behalf of groups such as NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project if you want to help make marijuana increasingly more affordable for yourself and your community.
For more information on all things cannabis and to check out our 100-percent all-natural marijuana products, visit HonestMarijuana.com today.


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In his recent book How to Build a Dinosaur, evolutionary paleontologist Jack Horner suggested that birds could be genetically engineered backward to take the form of their supposed dinosaur ancestors.1 He argued that birds arose through the selection of beneficial dinosaur mutants, and if those specific mutations could be identified and reversed in a new generation, then the resulting bird-like creature would hatch and grow into something resembling a dinosaur.
One paleontologist is attempting to do just that. Hans Larsson, Chair in Macro Evolution at McGill University in Montreal, is taking the first steps toward engineering a chicken with a dinosaur tail. He told international news agency AFP that this will be a "demonstration of evolution."2
But would it really? Larsson apparently is targeting a particular developmental gene that helps specify the length of the tail. If he succeeds in engineering (by purposeful design) a viable chicken with a long tail, will that be heralded as evidence of evolution? And if so, would such an achievement actually demonstrate evolution?
Larsson had previously asked, "Why can't we take all the genetics, just change it around a little bit, and produce a Tyrannosaurus Rex, or something that looks like one?"3 The answer is that it would not be so easy, because more than "a little bit" needs to change, a fact that Larsson and his colleagues will most likely discover during their research.
A long-tailed chicken would not truly demonstrate evolution. This "reverse-transitional" form would be less fit than its peers, having to drag around a uselessly long tail. Also, any successful changes would have been engineered by design, so they could not demonstrate something that happened through purely natural forces. Third, a long-tailed chicken would resemble a dinosaur only superficially, like attaching a long aluminum tube onto the back of a car to make it more like an airplane. Such a contraption would be much more difficult to drive and would be no closer to being able to fly.
Evolutionists have pointed out a few of the many critical differences between birds and the theropod dinosaurs from which they supposedly evolved.4 One researcher examined the different breathing apparatuses required by each kind.
Recently, conventional wisdom has held that birds are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs. However, the apparently steadfast maintenance of hepatic-piston diaphragmatic lung ventilation in theropods throughout the Mesozoic poses fundamental problems for such a relationship. The earliest stages in the derivation of the avian abdominal air sac system from a diaphragm-ventilating ancestor would have necessitated selection for a diaphragmatic hernia in taxa transitional between theropods and birds. Such a debilitating condition would have immediately compromised the entire pulmonary ventilatory apparatus and seems unlikely to have been of any selective advantage.5
In other words, the dinosaur breathing system operated like a bellows, with a muscle (the diaphragm) expanding and contracting to move air in and out. To transition it to the flow-through ventilation system used by birds would require a change to this muscle that would have immediately killed the newly-mutated form. If an animal cannot breathe, it cannot evolve.
To overcome the differences between dinosaur and bird would require re-engineering the entire chicken genome—not only adding new genes and new gene cassettes, and removing certain others, but also adding and removing specific genetic and epigenetic6 control and regulation systems to specify what, when, how often, how much, and where those cassettes should be used during an embryo's development.
Larsson, starting with the assumption of evolution, predicted that simply by "flipping certain genetic levers during a chicken embryo's development, he can reproduce the dinosaur anatomy."2 In contrast, starting with the biblical assertion that each creature was made to reproduce after its own kind,7 the amount and precision of genetic and cellular alterations that would have to be bioengineered to transform a chicken into a legitimately dinosaurian creature are so vast that no natural process could achieve it.
Rather than demonstrate evolution, these attempts to transform chickens will certainly demonstrate the precise and intricate design of this created kind.
- Horner, J. and J. Gorman. 2009. How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever. New York: Dutton.
- Canadian scientist aims to turn chickens into dinosaurs. AFP. Posted on breitbart.com August 25, 2009, accessed August 29, 2009.
- Brennan, Z. Jurassic Park comes true: How scientists are bringing dinosaurs back to life with the help of the humble chicken. Daily Mail. Posted on dailymail.co.uk June 13, 2008, accessed September 8, 2009.
- See references in Thomas, B. Do New Dinosaur Finger Bones Solve a Bird Wing Problem? ICR News. Posted on icr.org July 9, 2009, accessed September 8, 2009.
- Ruben, J.A. et al. 1997. Lung Structure and Ventilation in Theropod Dinosaurs and Early Birds. Science. 278 (5341): 1269.
- Epigenetics is a new field in biology, discussed briefly in Thomas, B. Epigenetics: More Information than Evolution Can Handle. ICR News. Posted on icr.org. January 30, 2009, accessed September 8, 2009.
- Genesis 1:20-21, 24-25.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on September 14, 2009.


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If the primary calendar played a role in the GOP's defeat in the 2012 presidential election, that part, at least, is now fixed.
By a vote of 153-9, the Republican National Committee approved rules changes Friday designed to start the 2016 primary season in February and end it as early as mid-May. What had been a month-long period where contests had to award delegates proportionally rather than winner-take-all was cut in half to two weeks. And states that violate the rules – either by moving ahead of the four official early states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina), or by holding a winner-take-all contest prior to the March 15 official start date – would be left with no more than a dozen delegates at the convention.
"We don't want a six-month slice-and-dice festival in our party. It's not good for picking a president. It's not good for our party," Chairman Reince Priebus told NPR.
Priebus and others in part sold the changes as a way to take back the nominating process from the "liberal media." Yet the slicing and dicing Priebus referred to actually came from other Republican candidates. On the stump and during the long string of debates, they argued that Mitt Romney wasn't a conservative enough Republican – a charge that Romney had to spend many months and tens of millions of dollars working to refute.
If the 2016 plan had been in place in 2012, Romney's immense financial advantage might have let him put Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum away a lot earlier. With more contests concentrated in a compressed span of time, having the money necessary for TV ads and staff on the ground in multiple states simultaneously is vital.
This is exactly the scenario the party's establishment candidate, whoever that happens to be, will likely have in 2016. And that's the scenario that critics like Virginia's Morton Blackwell distrust.
Blackwell said he supported the idea of compressing the primary season, but opposed shrinking the window where states must award delegates proportionally. The net effect, he said, makes it too difficult for a small-budget, grassroots candidate to succeed.
"Passing this makes it appear that something important was done," he said, rejecting proponents' description of the final package as a good "half-a-loaf" compromise. "You're not getting half-a-loaf of bread. What you're getting is half-a-slice of bread. Because in order for the bread in this circumstance to be meaningful, you've got to have the whole loaf."
The latest rules tweaks were prompted in large part by Florida, which in 2012 held its primary in late January, just as it had four years earlier, to exert a larger role in choosing the nominee. The strategy had worked in 2008, when John McCain won the state heading into Super Tuesday, where he locked up the nomination. That pivotal role was reprised in 2012, when Romney won Florida and retook the momentum after Gingrich's victory in South Carolina.
Should Florida again break the rules and hold its primary before March 1, it will lose all but 12 of its 100 or so delegates, rather than just half it lost in 2008 and 2012.
It's not a sanction Florida Republicans appear to want to face. In anticipation of this rules change, they have already moved the presidential primary from January to the first date that rules allow it to be held without penalty.
S.V. Dáte edits congressional and campaign finance coverage for NPR's Washington Desk.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.